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 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Send them to texas

No Texas has guns. They could arm themselves.

 LordofHats wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Send them to texas

No Texas has guns. They could arm themselves.

What about;
- California
- New York
- Chicago
instead?

We could just dig a ditch and drop them in. They'll starve anyway without food.

You know, I've been thinking it over, and now I think maybe we should just let this one go.

Due to a software bug, some hungry people in the richest country in the world got some food to which they were not entitled from the richest company in said richest country. I reject the idea that we have to choose between "lets make them hungrier" or "lets screw up their lives forever by giving them criminal convictions". The software bug was addressed and the issue is fixed. I think we should show some prosecutorial discretion and just, you know, move on.

 Ouze wrote:
You know, I've been thinking it over, and now I think maybe we should just let this one go.

Due to a software bug, some hungry people in the richest country in the world got some food to which they were not entitled from the richest company in said richest country. I reject the idea that we have to choose between "lets make them hungrier" or "lets screw up their lives forever by giving them criminal convictions". The software bug was addressed and the issue is fixed. I think we should show some prosecutorial discretion and just, you know, move on.

I'm inclined to agree (assuming all they got was simple food mind you). Someone getting a boat load of groceries while they could, let them pass and tighten up the system so this doesn't happen again. Someone who bought a whole bunch of money on wine, beer, fancy chocolates, I have no idea what these cards allow people to buy, book um. There's people seizing opportunity when they can, and then there's just outright abusing a system. This should be handled case by case with only extremely overt abuse actually being punished.

 Ahtman wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Still doesn't make it any less of a crime.

Going 1 mile over the speed limit makes you criminal, but that doesn't mean you should be treated the same as a murderer.

Who advocated throwing them in prison for life?

They should repay those who's money they misspent.

So, community service of some kind or a full cash repayment worked out over a period of time. They can clear parkland, paint state owned schools, clean monuments or something for a set number of hours per dollars.

This does not warrant a criminal investigation or prosecution at further tax dollars.

Community service does seem fair.

Yes. A good idea that one. Too bad we're talking about government here. They suck at those kinds of measures XD

Considering that most of these people have children and you'd just be hurting the kids, yeah, brilliant idea. "Serves those little kids right, they should have chosen their parents more carefully."

I was a social worker at DHS here in Oklahoma for a couple of years and generally we would reduce benefits over time for those that were overpaid to account for an overage. Ideal? No, but other community services could, i.e. food pantries, can help in some regard. Flat out removing benefits entirely from a group of people that depend heavily upon the dole....not good.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
They should repay those who's money they misspent.

So, community service of some kind or a full cash repayment worked out over a period of time. They can clear parkland, paint state owned schools, clean monuments or something for a set number of hours per dollars.

This does not warrant a criminal investigation or prosecution at further tax dollars.

As far as I am aware, you cannot mandate such things without court order. Meaning prosecution would be necessary.

quite a few of the people that did it knew exactly what they were doing ... i was at a store when some of it started happening ... saw one person inline call their friend and tell them 'get here now, they are letting you get anything with your card' ... and outside some people were bragging about how they had just spent their money last week on the card and they were glad their friend called them so they could come and get more. (said while loading the groceries into the back of a lincoln navigator)

now there are some people that do honestly need help from the system .. but one of the big things is. it is meant to supplement your groceries. not outright buy them so that you have more money to spend on things like getting your hair fixed or nails done ...

the major example in my area (the same area this happened) is that most of the people abusing the system know they are doing it. but have figured out that they have more money to spend if they just work a few hours a week ... and get their bills and housing for almost free, groceries paid for and so on. and then they will do other work on the side for cash.

but a family that has 2 kids .. and both parents work full time. make enough money to just cover rent and utilities and about 200$ a month left over for groceries get told that they make to much money for assistance like that.

and on the situation the thread is about .. several employee's from a location were fired as well for calling and letting their family and friends know what was going on so they could get up there ...

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
They should repay those who's money they misspent.

So, community service of some kind or a full cash repayment worked out over a period of time. They can clear parkland, paint state owned schools, clean monuments or something for a set number of hours per dollars.

This does not warrant a criminal investigation or prosecution at further tax dollars.

Well since walmart ate the cost no taxpayers dollars went to waste. I guess walmart is owed something but I'm not really going to shed a tear for them.

I guess I support letting this one go.

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
They should repay those who's money they misspent.

So, community service of some kind or a full cash repayment worked out over a period of time. They can clear parkland, paint state owned schools, clean monuments or something for a set number of hours per dollars.

This does not warrant a criminal investigation or prosecution at further tax dollars.

Well since walmart ate the cost no taxpayers dollars went to waste. I guess walmart is owed something but I'm not really going to shed a tear for them.

I guess I support letting this one go.

Ehh, they just committed fraud. Let it go, I'm sure they won't do it again.

 djones520 wrote:

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
They should repay those who's money they misspent.

So, community service of some kind or a full cash repayment worked out over a period of time. They can clear parkland, paint state owned schools, clean monuments or something for a set number of hours per dollars.

This does not warrant a criminal investigation or prosecution at further tax dollars.

Well since walmart ate the cost no taxpayers dollars went to waste. I guess walmart is owed something but I'm not really going to shed a tear for them.

I guess I support letting this one go.

Ehh, they just committed fraud. Let it go, I'm sure they won't do it again.

That's the spirit feel the love for the little man.

Ehh, they just committed fraud. Let it go, I'm sure they won't do it again.

It's not like they gamed the system or cheated it. The system actually broke down with a software glitch. Assuming that the system gets fixed so it doesn't break again, the chances of a repeat are low.

Besides, how do you punish the poor without causing more harm than good? Orphaned kids that go into the crappy foster care system, families that already struggle to pay for their needs having even less means, etc etc.

People are prosecuted to deter and give peace to victims. This is effectively a victimless crime, so no one is really getting peace from it. Fix the system and it won't happen again so nothing is being deterred. The law isn't served here.

So, even though they knowingly did wrong, you guys are cool with just letting it go, because their "poor".

What the hell do you think that breeds?

Never mind the complete and total lack of values that this represents, things like integrity.

The lack of it exhibited in the situation, and in this thread, is disgusting.

What do you think it's teaching the children you guys are so worried about?

Gotta agree with Jones. There needs to be some accounting just in the name of social order.

 djones520 wrote:
So, even though they knowingly did wrong, you guys are cool with just letting it go, because their "poor".

Not really. But there isn't much that can be done.

What the hell do you think that breeds?

What does punishing them breed? An outcome that's not that much different really.

Never mind the complete and total lack of values that this represents, things like integrity.

The lack of it exhibited in the situation, and in this thread, is disgusting.

I hear it's lonely at the top of the pedestal

You don't need to be insulting to the other posters in the thread man. Going after these people, I just don't see any good coming out of it. They broke the law and normally I'm all for dropping the hammer, but these are people who pretty much have nothing that can realistically be taken from them. Take away the food cards and they can't feed themselves. Send them to jail and their kids get thrown into our terrible social services system.

No one was hurt by this. The state and some businesses got cheated out of money that will be a drop in the hat in the big scheme of things. Assuming the system is fixed it won't happen again. Society is likely best served just letting it go.

 djones520 wrote:
So, even though they knowingly did wrong, you guys are cool with just letting it go, because their "poor".

What the hell do you think that breeds?

Never mind the complete and total lack of values that this represents, things like integrity.

The lack of it exhibited in the situation, and in this thread, is disgusting.

What do you think it's teaching the children you guys are so worried about?

When you drive on the highway you go 5 miles over the speed limit. When you see a cop sitting on the side of the road you slow down, and then speed up again when you can't see him in your rear view mirror anymore.

In short you only obey the rules when an authority figure is watching.

Thats a lack of integrity right there.




face added for proper lack of gravitas

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Gotta agree with Jones. There needs to be some accounting just in the name of social order.

There is, just dont take the way many of them rely to put food on the table. But i have a feeling that no matter what happens people are going to get screwed.

Take their children for the state's new reeducation facilities! These thieves shall work off their debt in the mines!

Everyone wins!

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Take their children for the state's new reeducation facilities! These thieves shall work off their debt in the mines!

Everyone wins!

Easy there Joe Stalin...

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:


Easy there Joe Stalin...

Hey man, Stalin loves children.

He loves them....FOR DINNER!!!!!!

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I say let them keep their stamps, but make them pay their due with service if they have kids to feed. We cant punish the kids for the parents crime

Fox News Article wrote:A worker at a soup kitchen in Alexandria said cutting off food stamps from a family would be detrimental. She said most recipients she sees receive a $25-a-month stipend. She was inside a store when the malfunction occurred, and recalled feeling empathy when she saw the individuals, who otherwise could not afford it, stacking up on food.

This is important, Not all who commit crimes are bad people deserving of horrible punishment. These people took advantage of a situation to feed them and their families when they might not normally be able to.

I wonder what circumstance puts them at $25 amonth because I suspect it's more sob story than truth. I checked on that and came up with this chart listed for aid listed.


http://www.dss.state.la.us/index.cfm?md=pagebuilder&tmp=home&nid=34&pnid=7&pid=93&catid=0

I have a family of 6 and can easily feed them with the stipend listed.


The people in the stores in no way, shape, or form have the need of 8 shopping carts worth of food. They are the same type as the people in New Orleans I used to see on their way to the scrap recyclers with the copper pipes they stripped from the bottom of somebodies house.

I am 100% sure that any of the posters here would do anything they could possibly do to feed their children. I know that if I had to choose between breaking the law, or my family going hungry, I would break the law.

Now I'm not talking about "not eating what we would like" or "not the lifestyle I would like", but honest to God hunger. I would do whatever it takes, and I truly think that any of you would do the same.

Hunger is horrible, and there are still way to many people who have children that go to bed without food. My wife's school has enough volunteers and donations for them to send home backpacks with some children each Friday to make sure that these kids have food to eat over the weekend, and for those kids the breakfast and lunch they get at school will be their only meals that day.

We went today for a "Thanksgiving" meal that was organized by one of the Churches that is near the school. Nice community event, they had some activities for the kids there as well and of course the staff was there. When we went to get our food we got a giant styrofoam box of food for each of us. A couple pounds of turkey each, giant helping of mashed potatoes, giant helping of green beans.

It was an obscene amount of food for one person to eat there. And that was my initial thought as a person that doesn't have to worry about hunger: "Nobody needs that much food to eat for a meal". But then I remembered what area I was in, and the population served by this school. And then I changed and instead of looking at this giant plate of "nobody will be able to eat this much food for a meal" I was able to look at it for what it really was: for many families in that school that day this plate of food was their lunch for today, their dinner for today, and their three meals for tomorrow. This event put on by the church made sure that for this weekend the families didn't have to worry about what their children will eat until they get their breakfast on Monday morning when they return to school. That's why everybody got a giant mountain of food in a to-go container instead of a sendible portion on a paper plate, the church knew what they were doing.

But looking at it through the eyes of somebody that doesn't go hungry, it just seemed like a waste of food for a single meal. But for many of these people there, it meant a weekend of not worrying about how to feed their children.

tl;dr

Hunger sucks. It is horrible. People will do whatever they can to make sure their families have food. I think if any of you pretend that you wouldn't do the same then you are full of it.

 LordofHats wrote:

No one was hurt by this. The state and some businesses got cheated out of money...

No one was hurt.

The state and some businesses got cheated out of money...

Seems like you're contradicting yourself there. I get the "down with big business thing" a lot of people have in their heads, but there is such a hypocrisy when it comes to punishments. I bet you were furious when big businesses had to pay millions of dollars for fraud and it was just a drop in the bucket.

Listen, there is nothing they can repay us without causing negative externalities. I think we can all calmly agree with this. But they committed a crime and need to be punished. We shouldn't spare the rod just because they're poor, just because of anything.

All this talk in their defense is starting to sound like the mother of a boy in chains before the court: "He's a good boy, your honor. He never would have pulled the trigger even though it was loaded. He feels really bad and won't do it again. He's a good boy." She knows what to say because the same words worked last time.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
He loves them....FOR DINNER!!!!!!

Maybe he should have had a, food card, for them?

Tydil wrote:

Listen, there is nothing they can repay us without causing negative externalities. I think we can all calmly agree with this. But they committed a crime and need to be punished. We shouldn't spare the rod just because they're poor, just because of anything.

The only problem is that you need to find a way to punish the person that did the deed that also doesn't punish the people that had nothing to do with it.